DISUNITED KINGDOM? ATTITUDES TO THE EU ACROSS THE UK

DISUNITED KINGDOM?

ATTITUDES TO THE EU ACROSS

THE UKRachel Ormston

Head of Social Attitudes at NatCen Social Research

2 DISUNITED KINGDOM? ATTITUDES TO THE EU ACROSS THE UK

Disunited kingdom? Attitudes to the EU across the UK

This paper examines the nature and scale of differences in support for the European Union across the four constituent countries of the UK. It assesses how far apart opinion in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland appears to be. It reviews the current state of the polls in each country and what this suggests about whose views might determine the outcome of the referendum. Finally, it examines potential reasons for the variation between England, Scotland and Wales in the level of support for EU membership, including differences in demographic profile, party structure and national identity.

FAR FROM UNITED ON EUROPEAlthough recent poll and survey data suggests a slight majority favour remaining in the EU, the size of this majority is much narrower in England than in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

52% 55% 64% 75%

Figures based on mean of recent polls

3DISUNITED KINGDOM? ATTITUDES TO THE EU ACROSS THE UK

PARTY POLITICS AND PUBLIC OPINIONEngland’s relatively anti-EU mood reflects the relatively high level of support for (anti-EU) UKIP and (partly Eurosceptic) Conservatives.

AN ENGLISH REFERENDUM?Within England, people who feel particularly strongly English are the most likely to want Britain to leave the EU.

REMAINLEAVE

LEAVE!

LABOUR

CONSERVATIVEUKIP

PLAID CYMRUSNP

LIBERAL

DEMOCRATS


1 By comparing the views of BSA respondents resident in England with those of SSA respondents, all of whom live in Scotland.

INTRODUCTIONFrom the perspective of 2015, constant constitutional wrangling seems to have become the norm in the UK. The forthcoming referendum on the UK’s membership of the European Union – due to take place by the end of 2017 – will be the latest in a series of constitutional flashpoints, following hot on the heels of the 2014 referendum on Scottish independence, moves to devolve further powers to both Scotland and Wales, and arguments around ‘English Votes for English Laws’ at Westminster. And apparent divergence in how the constituent countries of the UK intend to vote in the EU referendum has become a key issue in ongoing debate about the future of the UK itself. Nicola Sturgeon, the leader of the Scottish National Party, has said that if Scotland were taken out of the European Union against its “democratically expressed wishes” as a result of a majority vote to leave in England, a second referendum on Scottish independence would be “probably unstoppable” (BBC, 16 October 2015). In Wales, Leanne Wood, the leader of Plaid Cymru has warned of a “constitutional crisis” if voters in England swing the EU vote in favour of leaving, echoing SNP calls for a veto if a majority of voters in any of the four nations of the UK vote to remain (The Independent, 23 October 2016). Meanwhile, the Irish Prime Minister has recently suggested that the Northern Irish peace deal might be undermined if the UK leaves the EU (Telegraph, 9 November 2015).

This paper examines the accuracy of claims that views on the EU differ across the United Kingdom. It uses data from both long-running surveys, including NatCen’s British and Scottish Social Attitudes surveys and the British Election Studies, and from more recent opinion polls to assess the degree of difference across the UK in public opinion on the EU. It considers potential reasons for these differences, and what this might mean for whether or not we can expect further divergence or convergence of public opinion in the UK as the referendum campaigns gather momentum.


HOW FAR APART ARE ENGLAND, SCOTLAND, WALES AND NORTHERN IRELAND ON THE EU?The idea that England may be rather keener than Scotland on leaving the EU has become accepted wisdom, reinforced by differences in the enthusiasm of their respective political leaders for the European Union project. Prime Minister David Cameron has stated that he wants Britain to remain in the EU, but has made clear that his support is contingent on securing reform – including allowing Britain to restrict benefits for migrants and exempting Britain from provisions for ‘ever greater union’ with the rest of Europe. In contrast, Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has made clear that she views membership of the EU as vital to Scotland’s future prosperity, although she also believes there is a need for reform in some areas.

NatCen has repeatedly asked about views on the European Union on its British and Scottish Social Attitudes surveys (BSA and SSA). Based on similar cross-sectional probability samples and often including identical questions, BSA and SSA provide a robust means of comparing views in England and Scotland over time.1 Each survey has, on a number of occasions since 1999, asked people their views on Britain’s relationship with the EU using the following question:

Do you think Britain’s long-term policy should be …... to leave the European Union,to stay in the EU and try to reduce the EU’s powers,to leave things as they are,to stay in the EU and try to increase the EU’s powers,or, to work for the formation of a single European government?

The findings (summarised in Figure 1 and shown in full in Table A1 in the Appendix) confirm that Scotland is indeed less keen than England on leaving the EU. In 2014, 26% of people in England compared with 17% in Scotland said Britain’s long-term policy should be to leave the EU. This gap has existed for at least 15 years – in each year in which the question has been asked on both surveys, more people in England than in Scotland said they thought Britain should leave. At the same time, the size of the gap between England and Scotland in support for leaving the EU does, at 9 percentage points, appear to be slightly larger in 2014 than in earlier years.

Figure 1 – % who think Britain should leave the EU, Scotland and England, 1999-2014 (selected years)

0

18

10

20

30

1416

19 17

26 26

10 11 1113

14

1917

1999 2003 2005 20142000 2004 2013

England

Scotland

Source: England = British Social Attitudes, Scotland = Scottish Social Attitudes. Bases: See Appendix, Table A1


The BSA sample in Wales is too small (typically fewer than 200) to allow for robust estimates of the views of the population there. However, the 2015 British Election Study included a very large online panel study, with a ‘core sample’ of around 20,000 people and boosts in Scotland and Wales to allow the views of respondents in those countries to be examined separately. Although the BES team have highlighted that surveys based on non-probability internet panels remain less likely to produce a representative sample than surveys like British and Scottish Social Attitudes which use probability samples (British Election Study Team, 2015), its sheer size makes it one of the only datasets suited to comparing all three of England, Scotland and Wales with each other. Respondents to the post-election wave of BES (Wave 6, interviewed between 8th May 2015 and 26th May 2015) were asked:

If there was a referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union, how do you think you would vote?

The findings suggest there may be even bigger differences in how Scotland and England vote in the EU referendum than indicated by the long-running BSA and SSA question – 58% of people in Scotland say they would vote to stay in the EU, compared with just 45% in England, a difference of 13 percentage points (Appendix, Table A2) . Wales appears to fall between the two – 50% say they would vote to stay in the EU. Removing those who say they do not intend to vote or do not know how they will vote from analysis (standard practice in estimating vote share) indicates that while a majority (56%) in England said they would vote to stay in the EU, Scotland and Wales would vote to remain by a much larger margin (68% and 61% respectively –Figure 2).

Figure 2 – EU referendum vote by country (‘don’t knows’ and ‘would not vote’ excluded), May 2015

England Scotland Wales

56

44

68

32

61

39

Source: British Election Study Panel Wave 6.

Unweighted sample sizes: England = 11,942; Scotland = 3,054; Wales = 1,544

Stay in the EU Leave the EU


The British Election Study Panel data were collected before the final wording to be used in the referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU was agreed. This was finally settled in early September 2015, following advice from the Electoral Commission. Voters will be asked ‘Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union or leave the European Union?’. Many polling companies have only recently adjusted the wording of their standard question on this issue, either asking the question directly,2 or asking how they would vote in a future referendum where they were asked this question.3 Consequently, only a handful of polls to date have asked voters in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland how they would vote in the referendum using the agreed wording or something very close to it.

Figures for England only, taken from the six most recent UK-wide polls at the time of writing (mid-November 2015) give the narrowest of leads for the ‘Remain’ campaign. Opinion (after those who have yet to make up their mind are removed) is split 52% for remaining vs 48% for leaving – a lead of just 4 points for those wishing to stay in the EU (Figure 3 and Appendix Table A3). By way of comparison, it is worth noting that our rolling average ‘poll of polls’ in advance of the Scottish independence referendum only narrowed to this extent around a month out from the referendum itself – until late August 2014 the polls were suggesting a much clearer lead for the ‘No’ campaign (see http://whatscotlandthinks.org/ for details). As such, the current closeness of the polls on the EU must surely be unsettling for those wishing to remain and encouraging for those wishing to persuade people to leave.

Given that England accounts for 84% of the population, unsurprisingly the average Remain/Leave figures for England are very similar to the current averages for Britain as a whole (see http://whatukthinks.org/eu/opinion-polls/poll-of-polls/) – highlighting the extent to which the eventual outcome is likely to be influenced by the decisions of voters in England.

All recent Welsh polling on this issue has been conducted online by YouGov. The results are broadly in line with the BES figures above (unsurprisingly perhaps, since the BES panel study was also based on YouGov’s online panel): they suggest that public opinion in Wales is just a little more pro-EU than that in England. Three polls since May 2015 put Welsh support for remaining in the EU at 55% on average, with 45% supporting a ‘Brexit’ (though note that only the most recent of these asked the exact question that will appear on the ballot paper – see Figure 3 and Appendix Table A4).

In contrast, polling data for Scotland lends further weight to the evidence above that people in Scotland may indeed be considerably less likely to vote to leave the EU. The four online polls conducted in Scotland to date using the actual referendum question wording have put support for remaining in the EU at between 62% and 66% after those who have not decided are removed (Appendix Table A5). On average, these polls suggest that Scotland is currently split around 64%/36% Remain/Leave – giving the campaign to Remain a potential lead at least 10 percentage points higher in Scotland than in England (Figure 3). Source: British Election Study Panel Wave 6.

Unweighted sample sizes: England = 11,942; Scotland = 3,054; Wales = 1,544

2 ‘Should the UK remain a member of the EU or leave the EU?’ 3 ‘If a referendum were held tomorrow on the UK’s membership of the European Union (EU), how would you vote on the following question? “Should the UK remain a member of the European Union, or leave the European Union?”’


A handful of recent polls have asked people in Northern Ireland whether they think Britain should remain in or leave the EU. The methodological details provided with some of these are somewhat incomplete4 and they did not all ask the exact referendum question5, so some caution should be exercised in interpreting the findings. However, if accurate they indicate that support for remaining in the EU may be even higher in Northern Ireland than it is in Scotland – a mean of 75% across three recent polls (Figure 3, Appendix Table A6)

A potential criticism of comparing country-averages across recent polls is that this is not comparing like with like. Differences in the polling companies operating in the four countries of the UK and in their methodologies for selecting and weighting respondents might either exaggerate or understate the degree of difference between countries. To rule out this possibility, Figure 4 shows findings from three equivalent English and Scottish (and in one case Welsh) polls conducted by the same polling companies at very similar points in time. The overall figures do vary by polling company – in particular, Ipsos MORI, who conducted the only recent phone polling in England and Scotland on this issue, find rather lower levels of support for leaving the EU. However, the gap between England and Scotland in the level of support for leaving is almost identical (between 12 and 17 percentage points) for each company, while the gap between England and Wales (5 percentage points) is not dissimilar to that found above.

Figure 3 – Mean EU referendum voting intentions by country, based on recent polls, excluding ‘don’t knows’ (2015)

52

England Scotland Wales Northern Ireland

48

64

36

55

45

75

25

4 The organisations involved are often based in the Republic of Ireland and therefore not signed up to British Polling Council rules on methodological transparency and data publication. 5 For example, Millward Brown for Danske Bank asked “With regard to European Membership would you like to see NI … Build even greater connections with Europe; Continue with the current EU terms and conditions; Reduce the European relationship through the UK’s re-negotiations on the terms of membership; Exit the EU”

Remain

Sources: See Appendix, Tables A3 to A6. England figures based on 6 recent online polls; Scotland based on 4 online polls; Wales based on 3 online polls; Northern Ireland based on 2 face-to-face and one online poll.

Leave the EU


Figure 4 – % that would vote to leave the EU by country, date and polling company (excluding ‘Don’t knows’)

Survation Sept 2015 YouGov Sept 2015 Ipsos MORI Oct-Nov 2015

36

52

35

5247

25

42

Sources: See Appendix, Tables A7.

So while at present the ‘Remain’ side enjoys a lead across all four UK nations, all the evidence currently available suggests that a relatively small swing in England towards voting to leave could easily deliver an outcome with which a majority in Scotland and Northern Ireland apparently disagree. At the same time, were Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to vote as the polls currently predict, collectively they could overturn a narrow majority in England in favour of leaving the EU.

Scotland England Wales


Table 1: Modelling the ‘tipping’ point for English influence over the outcome

% of the UK population*Estimated % vote to

Remain in the EUContribution to overall

vote to Remain

England 84% 47.5 39.9

Scotland 8.3% 64 5.312

Wales 4.8% 55 2.64

Northern Ireland 2.9% 75 2.175

TOTAL VOTE TO REMAIN 100% 50.03%

* http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/guide-method/compendiums/compendium-of-uk-statistics/population-and-migration/index.html

If we assume for the purposes of modelling that Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland’s votes are indeed eventually split as shown in Figure 3 then taking into account their relative shares of the UK population, the ‘tipping point’ for votes in England above which those three countries might keep a reluctant England in the EU and below which England might take the rest of the UK out would be 47.5%. That is:

• If 47.5% or more of people in England vote to remain in the EU and the rest of the UK votes as suggested by Figure 3, the overall result would be just over 50% in favour of remaining.

• But if 47.4% or fewer of people in England vote to remain in the EU, then even if Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland vote to remain by majorities of 64%/55%/75% respectively, overall there would be a narrow majority in favour of leaving.6

6 If we instead assume that support for remaining falls from the levels indicated in Figure 3 by the same number of percentage points in each country – e.g. by 4 points in each of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland – then the tipping point is very similar, at 48% vote for remain in England.


WHAT EXPLAINS DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE COUNTRIES OF THE UK?Why is it that voters in England appear rather more willing than voters elsewhere in the UK to contemplate leaving the EU? One possibility is that the structure of support for the EU is simply different in the different UK nations. An earlier paper in this series (Curtice, 2015) outlined the demographic dividing lines across which British public opinion on the EU currently appears to be drawn. A variety of different data sources7 indicate that:

• Younger people are considerably more likely than older people to favour remaining in the EU

• Those in managerial and professional occupations are more likely than those in more working-class occupations to favour remaining in the EU

• Support for remaining in the EU broadly increases with level of education: those with a post-16 qualification are inclined to remain; those without lean towards leaving

• There is as yet no clear gender gap in relation to the EU referendum, although women are more likely than men to say they are undecided as to how they will cast their vote

• The views of supporters of particular political parties tend to reflect the position (or positions) of these parties. So while UKIP supporters overwhelmingly wish to leave and Liberal Democrats to remain, the views of Conservative and Labour voters are more divided, as are those of their parties (albeit with Labour supporters more pro-EU on balance, reflecting the general direction of their party over recent decades).

Are these patterns of support similar across the different nations of the UK? Data from the British Election Study online panel and (for England and Scotland only) from British and Scottish Social Attitudes suggest the answer is, for the most part, yes. (Our analysis here is primarily confined to England, Scotland and Wales, as equivalent data for Northern Ireland are not available.)

• Support for leaving the EU increases with age in all three countries (though the pattern by age is a little less linear in Wales – Figure 5).

• Those in managerial or professional occupations in Scotland and England are less likely than those in routine or semi-routine occupations to want to leave the EU (Appendix, Table A9).

• Those with no qualifications in all three countries are much keener than graduates on leaving the EU. BES data suggest that in Scotland and Wales, among those qualified to below GCSE/Standard Grade level over half would to vote to leave (Figure 6).

• Women in all three countries are less likely than men to have made up their minds about how they will vote.8

7 Including BSA, BES and various polls8 BES data indicate that women in England and Wales are both a little less likely to vote to remain and a little less likely to vote to leave than are men. In Scotland women are less likely than their male compatriots to vote to remain (52% v 65%) and a little more likely to vote to leave (29% v 26%). However, recent polls in Scotland have not replicated this pattern, and it is not apparent in Scottish Social Attitudes data on views of the EU.


Figure 5 - % saying they will vote to leave the EU, by age and country (May 2015)

18-25 26-35 36-45 46-55 56-65 66+

23

12

3033

2428

45

31 32

49

39 40

54

40

51 53

42

49

England Scotland WalesSource: BES internet panel Wave 6. Data based on respondents excluding those who said they did not know how they would vote. For sample sizes, see Appendix Table A8.

Figure 6 - % saying they will vote to leave the EU, by education and country (May 2015)


No formal qualification

or below GCSE

GCSE/Standard Grade or

equivalent

A-level/Higher or equivalent

HE below degree

Degree level or above

59

5356 58

44

50

39

2832

42

31

47

27

15

22

Source: BES internet panel Wave 6. Data based on respondents excluding those who said they did not know how they would vote. For sample sizes, see Appendix Table A10.


9 See the ONS website for detailed profiles based on the 2011 Census.

There are some differences in the demographic and socio-economic structure of England, Scotland and Wales9 - in particular, England has rather more people than Scotland and Wales in managerial and professional occupations. However, these differences do not explain the differences by country in views on the EU. In fact, if anything they tend to point in the opposite direction to the findings discussed above – given that people in managerial and professional occupations tend to be more strongly in favour of remaining in the EU, we might have expected England to be the most pro-EU of the three countries. So neither differences in overall demography, nor differences in the demographic pattern of attitudes to the EU across the three countries can explain why people in England are keener than those in Scotland or Wales on leaving the EU.

DIFFERENT POLITICAL LANDSCAPES?If demographic differences between England, Scotland and Wales are often minor, political differences between the three countries in 2015 are anything but. As Table 2 shows, while in England the Conservatives took the largest share of the vote in this May’s General Election, outpolling Labour by almost 10 percentage points, in Scotland the SNP polled more votes than Labour, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats combined. Meanwhile, in Wales Labour remained the largest party, while Plaid Cymru secured around 1 in 8 votes. UKIP won around 14% of the vote in both England and Wales but only 1.6% in Scotland. On the 8th May, one might be forgiven for thinking that the only thing all three countries had politically in common was the dramatic decline in the fortunes of the Liberal Democrats since 2010.


% % %

Conservative 41.0 14.9 27.2

Labour 31.6 24.3 36.9

Liberal Democrat 8.2 7.5 6.5

SNP - 50.0 -

Plaid Cymru - - 12.1

UKIP 14.1 1.6 13.6

Green 4.2 1.3 2.6

Turnout % 65.9 71.1 65.6

Table 2: 2015 General Election vote share by country

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election/2015/results


As discussed above, the different political parties obviously take very different positions on the EU. The SNP, Plaid Cymru and the Liberal Democrats are strongly in favour. UKIP is strongly opposed – campaigning for a ‘Brexit’ was central to its initial formation. The Labour party, in spite of some internal differences over the years and more recently, is broadly in favour. Meanwhile, the Conservative party remains deeply divided on Europe. And the pattern described above, whereby voters’ views on the EU broadly mirror those of the parties they support, is replicated across the UK – for example, Conservative voters in each of England, Scotland and Wales are divided in their views, with a little over 50% in each country favouring leaving the EU (after those who do not know how they would vote are excluded – Figure 7 and Appendix Table A11). The views of Labour voters are also similar regardless of where in the UK they live, while UKIP voters across Britain are almost universally favour leaving the EU.

But of course, the proportions of Labour, Conservative and UKIP voters are very different in England, Scotland and Wales. Meanwhile, voters in Scotland/Wales who support their respective nationalist parties are strongly in favour of remaining in the UK (Figure 7, Appendix Table A11). Once differences in party support across the UK are taken into account, differences between England, Scotland and Wales in support for leaving the EU all but disappear – indicating that differences in party structure are indeed very strongly linked with differences in public opinion on the EU between England, Scotland and Wales.10

Figure 7 - % saying they will vote to leave the EU, by 2015 General Election vote and country (May 2015)

Conservative Labour Liberal Democrat SNP Plaid Cymru UKIP

Source: BES internet panel Wave 6. Data based on respondents excluding those who said they did not know how they would vote. For sample sizes and figures for ‘Remain’, see Appendix Table A11.

10 This is confirmed by a forward stepwise logistic regression model of support for a vote to leave the UK using BES waves 6 data. Differences by country are not significant once differences by 2015 General Election vote are controlled for.

55 51 54

27 2822

17

30

11

27 23

93 94 93



In Northern Ireland too, voters appear split on party lines. A recent online poll by Lucid Talk for the Belfast Telegraph11 found that those who supported one of the unionist parties (the DUP, UUP, TUV, UKIP, PUP, or NI Conservative) bucked the overall Northern Irish trend by leaning towards voting to leave the EU: 54% supported a ‘Brexit’, just 21% said they would vote to remain in the EU and 24% were undecided. Meanwhile, those who normally vote for the nationalist Sinn Fein or SDLP were overwhelmingly in favour of remaining in the EU – as many as 91% said they intended to vote to remain. Given that Sinn Fein have said they view a ‘Brexit’ as potentially ‘economically disastrous’ for Northern Ireland12 while the DUP have adopted a relatively hard Eurosceptic stance, again the views of the public appear to mirror those of their favoured political parties.

Of course, this analysis can only show that there is a connection between which party people support and their position on the EU. It does not tell us in which direction this connection runs. It is probable, for example, that some people support UKIP because of their position on the EU - they are not following their party’s lead but rather choosing the party that reflects their pre-existing views on the European project. However, as Curtice (2015) argues, voters do not make up their minds about referendums in a vacuum – they take notice of the views being expressed by political and opinion leaders. And there is evidence to show that they tend to take notice of the views of the people who lead the parties they support (Curtice, 2013a).

This is perhaps particularly likely to be the case for referendums on complex issues or those for which many voters may have relatively little enthusiasm. Both of these arguably apply to the forthcoming EU referendum at present – a recent ICM poll asked people to say how much enthusiasm they had, on a scale of 1-10, for the referendum on EU membership. While 34% gave a score of 8-10, indicating a reasonable level of enthusiasm, 41% gave a more ‘neutral’ score (4-7) and 18% had very little enthusiasm for the EU referendum.13

In this context of lukewarm public interest, the steer given by the leadership of the various political parties may well prove crucial in the EU referendum. Not that this necessarily makes it any easier to predict the eventual outcome, particularly given current divisions among both Conservative voters and the Conservative leadership on this issue. As Curtice (2015, forthcoming) has argued, David Cameron’s influence over Conservative voters may be limited by their appetite for greater concessions from Europe than are currently on his agenda. At the same time there are other figures in the Conservative party whose decision on the EU referendum may well influence party supporters.

11 http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/debateni/bill-white/how-will-northern-ireland-vote-in-the-upcoming-eu-referendum-34176966.html12 http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/sinn-fein-to-protect-eu-membership-31156231.html 13 http://www.icmunlimited.com/data/media/pdf/2015-150915-inouttracker%20(SEPT%202015).pdf


NATIONAL IDENTITYThe difference in party structure across England, Scotland and Wales is, at least in part, a reflection of more deep-seated differences of national identity. At an obvious level, the extent to which people feel Scottish, English or Welsh varies very widely across Britain. There are also differences in the extent to which people in England, Scotland and Wales identify as ‘British’ and in how they balance their British and their English/Scottish/Welsh identities. British and Scottish Social Attitudes have long demonstrated that, while in England many people feel equally English and British, in Scotland most people tend to prioritise their ‘Scottishness’ over any feelings of ‘Britishness’. Wales appears to sit somewhere between the two, with the proportion saying they feel ‘Welsh not British’ or ‘More Welsh than British’ rather higher than the equivalent figure for England but lower than the figure for Scotland (Curtice, 2013b).

But how are people’s feelings of national identity related to their views of the EU? Given the pro-EU stances taken by the nationalist parties in Scotland and Wales we might anticipate, for example, that the relationships between feeling strongly Scottish, Welsh or English and views on the EU might be rather different.14

Wave 4 of the 2015 British Election Study online Panel survey, conducted in March 2015, asked respondents to place themselves on two scales – one to indicate how British they felt and another to indicate how English/Scottish/Welsh they felt. In each case, a score of 1 indicated that they felt ‘Not at all British/English/Scottish/Welsh’, while a score of 7 indicated that they felt ‘Very strongly British/English/Scottish/Welsh’.

The findings (Tables 3 and 4) show that:

• First, those who feel most strongly British are particularly likely to want to leave the EU – in each of England, Scotland and Wales, those who chose the top end of the scale were more likely to want to leave than those who felt less strongly British.

• Second, in England only, those who say they feel ‘not at all British’ are also likely to want to leave the EU.

• Third, among those who felt ‘very strongly English’, 63% would vote to leave the EU, compared with between 21% and 37% of those whose English identity was weaker (Table 4). Moreover, in England, how English people feel is much more closely associated with how they think they will vote in the referendum than is how British they feel.15

• The association between Scottishness and views on the EU is much weaker, while there appears to be little relationship at all between Welsh identity and views on Europe (Table 4). Feeling ‘exclusively English’ is more strongly associated with ‘Eurosceptism’ than is feeling ‘exclusively’ Scottish or Welsh.

• However, it is worth noting that feeling ‘very strongly Scottish’ is by no means associated with being particularly pro-EU – if anything, the 62% of respondents in Scotland whose Scottish identity was ‘very strong’ were a little more likely than average to favour leaving the EU (41%, compared with 37% across Scotland as a whole in BES Wave 4).

14 Although of course, feeling strongly Scottish/Welsh does not necessarily imply political support for Scottish or Welsh nationalism.

15 This is confirmed by a forward stepwise regression – although ‘Britishness’ and ‘Englishness’ are both significant, Englishness is far more strongly predictive of intention to vote to leave.


14 Although of course, feeling strongly Scottish/Welsh does not necessarily imply political support for Scottish or Welsh nationalism.

15 This is confirmed by a forward stepwise regression – although ‘Britishness’ and ‘Englishness’ are both significant, Englishness is far more strongly predictive of intention to vote to leave.

In summary, these findings suggest that very strong feelings of Britishness, Englishness and (to a lesser extent) Scottishness are all associated with being more likely to vote to leave the EU. As suggested in Ormston (2015), a strong sense of local territorial identity perhaps means that people are less willing to support more distant supranational institutions. However, the particular strength of the relationship between feeling very strongly English and supporting a vote to leave the EU suggests that the closeness of the race at present is particularly being driven by the views of ‘English’ voters, in an emotional as well as a geographic sense.

% vote to Leave

1 – Not at all British 2 3 4 5 6

7 – Very strongly British

England 57 52 47 43 39 36 57

Scotland 29 25 33 39 32 33 46

Wales 31 15 34 42 30 37 53

Unweighted base England

280 185 294 1011 1832 2661 6491

Unweighted base Scotland

408 200 165 408 467 456 1005

Unweighted base Wales 64 40 55 152 210 252 795

Table 3: % vote to leave the EU, by British identity within country (BES, March 2015)

Note: Those who do not know how they would vote are excluded from the base.

% vote to Leave

1 – Not at all English/ Scottish/ Welsh

2 3 4 5 6

7 – Very strongly English/ Scottish/ Welsh

England 32 21 21 24 28 37 63

Scotland 43 36 39 35 29 23 41

Wales 48 37 53 46 38 40 45

Unweighted base England

520 265 352 972 1499 1990 7143

Unweighted base Scotland

235 96 77 201 237 422 1813

Unweighted base Wales 274 92 74 141 154 164 634

Table 4: % vote to leave the EU, by English/Scottish/Welsh identity within country (BES, March 2015)

Note: Those who do not know how they would vote are excluded from the base.


CONCLUSIONSThis paper confirms the popular view that England is indeed the most Eurosceptic nation in the UK; all the available survey and polling evidence points to there being a much narrower majority in England for remaining in the EU than there is Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.

At this point in time, the ‘Remain’ campaign has a lead in all four countries – so it is far from clear that there will necessarily be an outcome that divides England from its neighbours. Yet the narrowness of the Remain lead means that a relatively small swing in England towards leaving the EU could produce one of two outcomes with the potential for constitutional upset. England could either be kept in the EU by the rest of the UK, in spite of narrowly voting to leave, or England could take the rest of the UK out of the European Union, in spite of voters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland opting to remain.

At the same time, the closeness of the link between the positions taken by different UK political parties on Europe and the views of their supporters highlights the potential for further divergence between the constituent nations of the UK. If people remain relatively unenthusiastic about the EU referendum, then they are arguably likely to take their cues as to how to vote from the political leaders they most support. In this context, the stance taken by leading Conservative figures in England may well be crucial, not only to the overall outcome but to the level of divergence within the UK. If the Conservative leadership in England moves in a more Eurosceptic position, while at the same time political leaders in Scotland and Wales maintain their strongly pro-EU stance, we could easily see a widening of the gap between Conservative-led England and its UK neighbours. And if this gap reaches a ‘tipping point’ whereby the views of England are either overruled by or overrule votes in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, the constitutional implications may extend beyond the specific question of whether or not the UK remains in the EU.


REFERENCESBBC (16 October 2015) ‘Sturgeon: new Scottish referendum ‘probably unstoppable’ if UK votes to leave EU’, accessed at: http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/oct/16/nicola-sturgeon-new-scottish-referendum-probably-unstoppable-if-uk-votes-to-leave-eu

British Election Study Team (12 November 2015) ‘The Benefits of Random Probability Sampling: The 2015 BES Face-to-Face’, accessed at http://www.britishelectionstudy.com/bes-resources/f2f-release/#.VkyQqqDtmkp

Curtice, J (2015, forthcoming) ‘Playing with political fire: Cameron, the Conservatives and the EU referendum’, Juncture, 22(3), 196–200

Curtice, J (2015) Britain divided? Who supports and who opposes EU membership?, NatCen Social Research, available at http://whatukthinks.org/eu/analysis/britain-divided-who-supports-and-who-opposes-eu-membership/

Curtice, J (2103a) ‘Politicians, Voters and Democracy: The 2011 UK Referendum on the Alternative Vote’, Electoral Studies, 32: 215-23.

J. Curtice, (2013b) DR8: National Identity and Constitutional Change, London: Government Office for Science. (Foresight Project on Future Identities), Available at: www.bis.gov.uk/foresight/our-work/policy-futures/identity/Copy%20of%20reports-documents

The Independent (23 October 2015) ‘Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood warns of constitutional crisis if English voters engineer Brexit’, accessed at: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/eu-referendum-plaid-cymru-leader-leanne-wood-warns-of-constitutional-crisis-if-english-voters-a6705101.html

Telegraph (9 November 2015) ‘Britain leaving EU could restart the Troubles in Northern Ireland’accessed at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/11983238/George-Osborne-secures-30pc-cuts-at-four-government-departments-live.html


Table A1: Attitudes to Britain’s long-term policy on the EU, Scotland and England, 1999-2014

APPENDIX

1999 2000 2003 2004 2005 2013 2014Change 1999-2014

% choosing ‘leave the EU’

England 14 18 16 19 17 26 26 12

Scotland 10 11 11 13 14 19 17 7

GAP (Scotland – England) -4 -6 -5 -6 -3 -7 -9 -5

% choosing ‘stay in the EU and reduce the EUs powers’

England 45 40 33 39 36 40 39 -6

Scotland 36 37 29 31 36 40 40 4

GAP (Scotland – England) -9 -1 -4 -8 0 0 1 10

% choosing ‘leave things as they are’

England 20 18 27 23 23 18 16 -4

Scotland 21 21 24 27 21 25 24 3

GAP (Scotland – England) 1 2 -3 4 -2 7 8 7

% choosing ‘stay in the EU and increase the EUs powers’

England 9 10 11 7 10 6 10 1

Scotland 14 13 19 12 13 8 7 -7

GAP (Scotland – England) 5 3 8 5 3 2 -3 -8

% choosing ‘work for single EU government’

England 6 7 6 5 4 3 4 -2

Scotland 9 9 8 7 5 3 4 -5

GAP (Scotland – England) 3 2 2 2 1 0 0 -3

Unweighted base England 902 1928 1917 2684 3643 1854 827 902

Unweighted base Scotland 1482 1663 1508 1637 1549 1497 1501 1482

Source: England = British Social Attitudes, Scotland = Scottish Social Attitudes



Stay in the EU 45 58 50

Leave the EU 35 28 33

I would not vote 3 2 2

Don’t know 16 13 15

Weighted base 17174 1768 1039

Unweighted base 14639 3516 1831

Excluding Don’t know/would not vote

Stay in the EU 56 68 61


Weighted base 13853 1512 856

Unweighted base 11942 3054 1544

Table A2: EU referendum voting intention (BES, May 2015)

Table A3: EU referendum vote intention, latest 6 polls at mid-November 2015 (England only)

Polling company and Fieldwork end date

BMG* (online), 27 Oct 2015

ICM (online),

1 Nov 2015

ICM (online),

8 Nov 2015

Survation+ (online), 11 Nov 2015

ICM (online), 15 Nov 2015

Survation (online), 17 Nov 2015

Remain a member of the EU

39 44 46 37 42 41

Leave the EU 41 38 38 44 39 42

Don’t know 20 18 16 18 18 17

Excluding ‘Don’t knows’

Remain a member of the EU

50 54 55 46 52 49

Leave the EU 50 46 45 54 48 51

Sample size (including DKs)

1267 1773 1743 1633 1722 1288

Source: http://whatukthinks.org/eu/

* NB BMG figures excluding ‘don’t knows’ also include people who initially said they did not know how they would vote, but who leaned towards voting to remain or leave when asked a ‘squeeze’ question about which direction they were leaning.+ Survation figures are weighted by voting likelihood.


Fieldwork end date 6 May 2015 26 June 2015 24 Sept 2015

Remain a member of the EU 47 44 42


Don’t know/would not vote 21 19 21




Sample size (including DKs) 1202 1151 1010

Table A4: How think would vote in EU referendum, recent online (YouGov) polling data for Wales

Source: https://yougov.co.uk/publicopinion/archive/?year=&month=&category=europe http://blogs.cardiff.ac.uk/electionsinwales/2015/10/01/the-new-welsh-political-barometer-poll-referendum-voting-intentions/

NOTES: The first two polls asked people ‘“If there was a referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union, how would you vote?”, with answer options: I would vote to remain a member of the European Union; I would vote to leave the European Union; I would not vote; Don’t KnowThe September poll asked: “If there was a referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union and this was the question, how would you vote: Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union or leave the European Union?”


Panelbase, 3 July 2015

Survation, 10 September

2015

YouGov 27 September

2015

YouGov, 13 October 2015

Remain a member of the EU 55 50 55 51

Leave the EU 29 28 30 31

Don’t know/would not vote 16 22 15 17




Sample size (including DKs) 888 975 1004 1026

Table A5: EU referendum vote intention, recent online polling data for Scotland

Source: http://whatukthinks.org/eu/



Panelbase, 3 July 2015

Survation, 10 September

2015

YouGov 27 September

2015

YouGov, 13 October 2015



Don’t know/would not vote 16 22 15 17




Sample size (including DKs) 888 975 1004 1026

Sources: 1) http://www.danskebank.co.uk/en-gb/About-the-bank/Media-and-Press/Press-releases/2015/Pages/eu-membership-survey-ni.aspxNB the question was worded: “With regard to European Membership would you like to see NI … Build even greater connections with Europe; Continue with the current EU terms and conditions; Reduce the European relationship through the UK’s re-negotiations on the terms of membership; Exit the EU”2) http://banda.ie/wp-content/uploads/RT%C3%89-BBC-BA-Cross-Border-Survey-Tabular-Report.pdf 3) http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/debateni/bill-white/how-will-northern-ireland-vote-in-the-upcoming-eu-referendum-34176966.html

Polling company and Fieldwork end dateMilward Brown, June 2015 (1)

B&A (Face-to-face, quota) 16 Oct 2015

(2)

LucidTalk (online), 21 Oct

2015 (3)



Don’t know 26 32 15




Sample size (including DKs) 1000 1012 2517

Table A6: Views on the EU, recent polling data for Northern Ireland


Remain Leave Remain Leave Remain Leave

Survation, Sept 2015 48 52 64 36 NA NA

YouGov, Sept 2015 48 52 65 35 53 47

Ipsos MORI, Oct-Nov 2015 58 42 75 25 NA NA

Table A7: Views on the EU, by polling company and country

Source: all available via http://whatukthinks.org/eu/Exact dates: Scotland: Survation 7-10.9.15; YouGov Sept 22-27.9.15; Ipsos MORI 9-16.11.15England: Survation 3-4.9.15; YouGov Sept 9-16.9.15; Ipsos MORI 17-19.10.15Wales: 21-24.9.15

% Leave 18-25 26-35 36-45 46-55 56-65 66+

England 23 33 45 49 54 53

Scotland 12 24 31 39 40 42

Wales 30 28 32 40 51 49

Unweighted base England 1380 1542 1644 2203 2881 2190

Unweighted base Scotland 314 379 479 605 750 499

Unweighted base Wales 125 175 207 262 432 335

Table A8: % saying they will vote to leave the EU, by age and country, after those who do not know how they will vote are excluded (BES, May 2015)


% Leave Managerial/professional Intermediate

Small orgs & own

account workers

Lower supervisory/

technical

Routine/semi-

routine

England 22 26 27 28 29

Scotland 10 18 18 21 21

Unweighted base England 294 112 82 63 242

Unweighted base Scotland 484 204 123 134 440

Table A9: % saying they would prefer to leave the EU, by class and country (BSA and SSA 2014)*

* This table is based on BSA and SSA data rather than BES as the underlying bases for the BES sample show that those in managerial and professional occupations are very significantly over-represented in the BES internet panel, leaving some doubt about the representativeness and accuracy of analysis by class.

% LeaveNo formal

qualification or below

GCSE

GCSE/ Standard Grade or

equivalent

A-level/ Higher or equivalent

HE below degree

Degree level or above

England 59 58 39 42 27

Scotland 53 44 28 31 15

Wales 56 50 32 47 22

Unweighted base England 2302 1875 1858 823 3334

Unweighted base Scotland 471 285 569 242 979

Unweighted base Wales 286 234 187 116 476

Table A10: % saying they will vote to leave the EU, by highest educational qualification and country, after those who do not know how they will vote are excluded (BES, May 2015)

Conservative Labour Liberal Democrat

Scottish National

Party (SNP)

Plaid Cymru UKIP

% Stay in the EU

England 45 73 83 - - 7

Scotland 49 72 70 73 - 6

Wales 46 78 89 - 77 7

% Leave the EU

England 55 27 17 - - 93

Scotland 51 28 30 27 - 94

Wales 54 22 11 - 23 93

Unweighted base England 4032 3798 1074 - - 1526

Unweighted base Scotland 402 747 219 1414 - 68

Unweighted base Wales 363 522 117 - 173 195

Table A11: How think would vote in EU referendum, by 2015 General Election vote and country, after those who do not know how they will vote are excluded (BES, May 2015)


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Conservative Labour Liberal Democrat

Scottish National

Party (SNP)

Plaid Cymru UKIP

% Stay in the EU

England 45 73 83 - - 7

Scotland 49 72 70 73 - 6

Wales 46 78 89 - 77 7

% Leave the EU

England 55 27 17 - - 93

Scotland 51 28 30 27 - 94

Wales 54 22 11 - 23 93

Unweighted base England 4032 3798 1074 - - 1526

Unweighted base Scotland 402 747 219 1414 - 68

Unweighted base Wales 363 522 117 - 173 195

DISUNITED KINGDOM? ATTITUDES TO THE EU ACROSS THE UK

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